TKO 31: Young Guns Line-Up Set

Dec 4, 2007 7:05 PM Press release

December 4th 2007 – TKO Championship Fighting is pleased to announce the final lineup for TKO 31: Young Guns to be held at the Bell Centre in Montreal on December 14th, 2007. Rising Heavyweight star Steve Bosse will face off against the former TKO Heavyweight Champion, Icho Larenas in a very popular main event. Bosse is looking to continue his ascent up the TKO ladder while Larenas wants to reassert himself amongst the best Heavyweights in MMA. Making things even more interesting is the increasing war of words from these two behemoths that obviously share no love loss. The event also features TKO superstars Mark Hominick, Stephane Dube, Martin Grandmont and Stephane Vigneault all facing off against top contenders!

Steve Bose (2-0-0) is a massively popular hockey star turned MMA athlete who has looked flawless in his young MMA career. Icho Larenas (3-3-0) is a former champion and UFC vteran who is looking to make a statement in this fight. “It’s about time Bosse fights a real fighter,” remarked Larenas. “He’ll realize that he’s not the only one who can hit hard!” Larenas has been working his standup with Victor Vargotski and Firas Zahabi has helped him with his ground game. Bosse has been working intensively on becoming a complete MMA fighter over the last 10 months; he’s working his stand-up game with Yanick Bergeron, his wrestling with Harry Deley, his jiu-jitsu with Fabio Holanda and his conditioning with Stephane Dube. Bosse is very serious about his new career and he sees this fight against Icho Larenas as a huge opportunity so early in his career. “I can’t wait for this fight; finally I get to fight someone who really wants to fight!” Bosse responded. “It’s an honor to fight the former champion, but that’s not going to stop me from knocking him out. I know he won’t want to stand with me, but if he does it’s going to be a short fight!” Bosse is looking to notch the biggest win of his career with a victory over Larenas. But, Larenas has proved time and again that he’s got tremendous heart and never backs down. This fight has all the ingredients for a very entertaining and competitive clash between two massively popular behemoths!

Mark Hominick (14-7-0) is back in the co-main event as he squares off against rising star, Danny Martinez (6-0-0). Hominick is coming off a tremendous performance against top contender, Ben Greer and says he’s hungrier than ever! Hominick feels like Montreal is his second home and is excited about fighting in front of the fans that have shown him so much support throughout his illustrious career. Martinez is an accomplished wrestler with lethal ground and pound who is looking to take a quantum leap in his career with a win over Hominick.

Stephane Dube (6-2-0) is the Randy Couture of Canada! At the age of 42, Dube says he’s never felt better and can’t wait to get back on the winning track. Chad Reiner (15-3-0), a two-time UFC veteran, may be the biggest test of Dube’s career. Reiner is a very aggressive fighter with knockout power and excellent submission skills who has fought some of the biggest names in MMA. Dube didn’t hesitate for a second accepting this challenge as his goal at this point of his career is to continue fighting big names and top caliber competition.

Martin Grandmont (5-4-0) never looked better than he did in his last fight with Sam Stout. “I was thinking oh my god, this guy isn’t as strong as I thought, I think I’m going to finish this fight! Then, I let my guard down for one second and he caught me,” explained Grandmont. “This is another big name fight for me and another big test that I look forward to.” Jay Estrada (20-9-0) is no stranger to TKO fans as fought Stout for the TKO Championship before, also coming up short. Estrada thought he’d be retired by this stage of his life, but his undying desire to compete and thrill of victory has kept the fuel burning. He’s a very experienced fighter with good standup and excellent grappling skills.

Stephane Vigneault (9-4-0) is finally back! “I’m 100% and I can’t wait to get back to competing regularly!” exclaimed Vigneault. “I think Ben Greer is right at the top of Canadian Featherweights after guys like Hominick and Antonio Carvalho. A win against Greer would be very important to my career.” Ben Greer (10-3-0) is undoubtedly one of the best featherweights in Canada. Unfortunately, he did not show that in his last fight against Hominick. “Right now, my main goal is just to get that last fight off my mind,” explained Greer. “It wasn’t that I lost, but that I didn’t even get to show my stuff that really bothers me. I promise the fans that they’re going to see a different fighter this time!”

Bob Landry (2-1-0) is always exciting and lots of fun to watch. His attitude in the ring seems to be that I’ll let you hit me, but I’ll hit you back harder. His opponent will be Lance Evans (1-2-0), brother of famous UFC fighter, Rashad Evans. Evans has had some mixed results in his career, mostly because of accepting fights on short notice. That’s not the case this time though as he’s had over 4 months to prepare, since he was supposed to fight Steve Bosse at TKO 30. TKO fans will get a kick out of this fight as these two giants promise to swing for the fences until one of them drops to the mat.

Popular TKO veteran, Thierry Quenneville (10-7-0), returns to face Yoon Heo (3-3-0), a very exciting fighter and training partner of Ben Greer. Quenneville was once considered amongst the best featherweights in Canada and is committed to regaining his top status while, Heo hopes to make a big splash in TKO by taking out a recognizable veteran.

Eric Leclerc (3-1-0) began his career with three impressive victories before he ran into Thai Boxing champion, Syd Barnier. He will look to rebound when he squares off against Mark Fraser (1-3-1). Fraser was one of the pioneers of MMA in Quebec as he fought on the first events back in the late 90s. He’s coming off a seven year hiatus to face Leclerc!

Also on the card are four outstanding preliminary fights starting at 6h30pm, including:

This event features many of the greatest TKO superstars as well as some of the newest and exciting, future stars. The main event is a guaranteed crowd pleaser as heavyweight hitters Bosse and Larenas will go toe-to-toe. There are also a few compelling storylines to follow in this event. Hominick appears to have a renewed sense of confidence and is looking to continue knocking out opponents on his way back to the top! Dube has accepted another huge challenge against a UFC veteran. Grandmont and Vigneault will try to get their careers to the next level with wins over notable opponents. Who will rise and who will fall at TKO 31?
TKO proudly brings you yet, another thrilling MMA event! Stay tuned to http://www.tkomma.tv for the latest updates on TKO 31: Young Guns – December 14th, 2007 at the Montreal Bell Centre. To purchase tickets: order on-line at the Admission Network: http://www.admission.com; by phone at 1-800-361-4595; or in person at the Bell Centre ticket office.